Sunday, October 11, 2015

French Door Details

Keep knocking and the joy inside will eventually
open a window and look out to see who’s there. ~Rumi

I am fascinated with the beautiful doors and windows of southern France, this series is focused on the door hardware. I can just imagine the many hands that have touched these knockers and handles over the hundreds of years.

In French a door
knocker is “les heurtoirs.” The first knockers were small hammers hanging
outside the closed front door. A visitor would use the hammer and bang it
against the door.

The hand door
knocker is either in cast iron or brass, painted or unpainted, each one holding
a ball, this design might have come from the Middle East. There are two legends
about the “five fingers and hand.” One is that it represents the hand of Fatima
(daughter of the Prophet Muhammad), and is an Islamic symbol to ward off the “evil
eye.” It is believed by some she had anti-evil magical powers. The Jewish
legend on this is that the hand of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, who
also has anti-evil powers. Both legends regard the hand and five fingers to
have powers to “keep evil away.”

All of the following images were captured with the iPhone 5. The camera you have with you is always the best
camera. Please enjoy!

les heurtoirs, door knocker

les heurtoirs, door knocker

les heurtoirs, door knocker - this is also the door handle - lift and turn sideways it will unlatch the door bolt

les heurtoirs, door knocker

les heurtoirs, door knocker, "The Hand of Fatima"

les heurtoirs, door knocker, "The Hand of Fatima"

les heurtoirs, door knocker, "The Hand of Fatima"

les heurtoirs, door knocker, "The Hand of Fatima"

les heurtoirs, door knocker, "The Hand of Fatima"

les heurtoirs, door knocker

Door locks and knocker

Door locks and knocker

les heurtoirs, door knocker

Door locks and knocker

Serpent Door Knocker

les heurtoirs, ornate door knocker

Swan door knocker

Serpent Swallowing its Tail and Lion door knocker

Photography by Terry Rowe.

Your visit & comments are appreciated.

You can see my art work or photographs at
www.terryrowe.photography, any photographs in my blog are also available for
purchase.

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About Me

In
my photographs, I seek to capture a moment, to give the viewer a glimpse of
place and time that arrests the movement of life and allows each of us to savor
what is there to be seen. I have a camera in my hands every day, and my
favorite sound is the sweet click of the shutter as an image is caught.